Let’s Recap: In Shallow Hal, he can’t see inner beauty because his fathers dying words to him and what gives life meaning was: “Hot young tail.” So, Hal listened. The slightest physical imperfection disgusted him but after Tony Robbins hypnotized Hal in an elevator, he sees his budding romance with the 300 pound Rosemary as the manifestation of her inner beauty.

It turns out everyone might have a “type” — and if you find someone very attractive — your “type” is rooted in your individual, personal experience, according to research published in the journal Current Biology.

The study, which was conducted on identical twins, was designed to illuminate where people’s disagreements over attractiveness come from. By analyzing the preferences of over 35,000 volunteers who visited their “Rate My Face” website, (TestMyBrain.orgTestMyBrain.org), researchers developed a “highly efficient and effective test of the uniqueness of an individual’s face preferences.” The research team then used that test to analyze the preferences of 547 pairs of identical twins and 214 pairs of same-sex, non-identical twins by having them rate the attractiveness of 200 faces. This way, the researchers could see the relative contribution of genes and environments on face preference, since past research has shown personalities, interests, and abilities are passed down from generations of twins and families in general.

Turns out the “eye of the beholder” is based on experiences, not genes. And, as you can imagine, these experiences are specific to each individual, down to the tiniest detail.

“The types of environments that are important are not those that are shared by those who grow up in the same family, but are much more subtle and individual, potentially including things such as one’s unique, highly personal experiences with friends or peers, as well as social and popular media”.

Naturally, some aspects of attractiveness (i.e. symmetrical facial structure) are universal, and maybe even coded in our genes, the researchers say. People’s aesthetic preferences (face-wise) agree about 50 percent of the time. But for that other 50 percent, what’s attractive is based on personal experience.

That means the girl or guy you see every day on your morning commute, the leading lady in your favorite sitcom, and your first crush all have an influence on the type of woman or man you find attractive—even if your friends don’t get the attraction.

When attraction, or romantic passion, comes into play, we often lose our ability to think rationally — at least when it comes to the object of our attraction. The old saying “love is blind” is really accurate in this stage. We are often oblivious to any flaws our partner might have. We idealize them and can’t get them off our minds.